The ESL One American Group Finals have concluded with EG defeating Team Liquid in a best-of-five series with a score of 3-1 to secure a spot in Frankfurt finals. EG will be joining Alliance, Natus Vincere, Team Dog and Fnatic in Frankfurt, Germany to compete for a prizepool of $150,000.
ESL One American Group Finals have concluded with EG defeating Team Liquid with a score of 3-1 in a best-of-five-series. EG defeated North American Rejects and Vas'Avi to face Team Liquid, whom defeated TOP5 and Union Gaming. With their victory, they will be representing America at Frankfurt, Germany against the likes of Alliance, Na'vi, Team Dog, and Fnatic. The Asian and European qualifiers will finish next, presenting three more teams to compete at the LAN finals.
[Game 1 Winner - EG]
Game one saw Universe getting his hands on the infamous Dark Seer while Liquid put DeMoN on Batrider. Liquid got off to a good start with several good ganks on EG's cores. Although Liquid maintained a small lead for the first part of the game, EG managed to gain enough farm for their late game draft advantage to kick in. A huge team fight at middle lane saw EG crushing Liquid in their own base despite a powerful defensive presence. Seeing his base in shambles, TC on Luna attempted to base race against Eg's entire team to no avail. Lycan proved to be too powerful and EG took down Team Liquids base 43 minutes in.
[Game 2 Winner - Team Liquid]
In game two, Team Liquid turned things around with Bulba leading the charge on Axe, dominating the early game with his aggressive playstyle. Qojqva was able to take middle and farm a massive gold lead, obtaining Black King Bar and Daedalus only twenty minutes in. EG was fighting a losing battle all game and was boxed into their own base, unable to farm up their core Lycan and Invoker. Team Liquid took their time pushing down EGs defenses, grabbing picks here and there. At around twenty five minutes, they went for the death push. With Shadow Fiend auto attacking for over one thousand damage, EG was wiped out and called GG.
[Game 3 Winner - EG]
With their draft unable to procure results in the previous game, EG decided to return to the drawing board with a tri core of Luna, Dragon Knight, and Batrider. Team Liquid picked up Invoker, Centaur, and Mirana. Since EG had a much stronger late game, Team Liquid also selected Enchantress to maintain some early game presence. Even though several of the neutral camps were blocked off, Waytoosexy was able to help push down two towers in five minutes while Bulba on Centaur Warrunner found a kill on Batrider with the help of an invisibility rune. A back and forth game stalemate was suddenly broken open at 15 minutes when EG found several key hero kills at various positions on the map. Liquid attempted to take Roshan shortly after, but it was not enough. The next Roshan fight ten minutes later was a disaster for Team Liquid with EG showing off their brand new BKB's, completely crushing Team Liquid. One more fight at Dire tier 3 towers was enough for EG to finally push through and force the GG.
[Game 4 Winner - EG]
Game four saw an unusual Nightstalker safelane for EG's standin Mason while Arteezy played his infamous Naga Siren. Team Liquid took Queen of Pain in their safe lane to ensure a powerful mid game presence. Before the game even began, EG managed to pick off Shadow Demon in Team Liquid's own jungle. Although the farming lanes were relatively even, the sustainability from Witch Doctor and Treant Protector on EG enabled the Night Stalker to make insane tower dives, giving Naga Siren all the room she needed to farm a 15 minute Radiance. Bulba's Invoker was unable to make enough of an impact for Team Liquid as Night Stalker's Crippling Fear provided constant problems. Multiple engagements led to Team Liquid slowly bleeding towers and heroes, forcing GG at 28 minutes.
For more information about the qualifiers, check out our coverage hub here.
For more information about the ESL One 2014 tournament, visit the official website.
HL image from SLTV facebook.
